A Love Trap
Chapter 347 Remained Warmth

After the events of that day, Ashley and Andrew seemed to be in a cold war, similar to the one they once had.

Even though they looked okay, they both knew in their hearts that there was a problem in their relationship.

They seemed to have gone back to the same cautious, doubtful emotions they had experienced when they first started dating.

In fact it was even worse than the first time.

They were keeping something in their hearts, that no one was willing to speak out about first. They watched with bated breath, hoping the other party would break the silence.

At 10 o'clock in the evening, when Ashley had finished cleaning up, she took one more look at her sketch book and decided to go to sleep.

Taking a glance beside her, the space on the bed was still empty. It had been the same for a few nights now. Andrew hadn't been sleeping there since the beginning of the spat.

As she lay down, bitterness gripped her heart. The rims of her eyes hurt, a stream of tears flowing down her cheeks. If they continued to act like this, they would break up sooner or later. Weren't they the same people who had once deeply loved each other?

How on earth had they come to this point?

She had gotten used to having Andrew sleep by her side. Now without him, she struggled to catch sleep, staying wide awake for a long time into the wee hours of the night.

Inwardly, her head was whirling with anxious thoughts. Even when she finally drifted off to sleep, troubling dreams added to her misery, robbing her worn-out soul of much-needed rest.

A few hours after she had fallen asleep, the door to the bedroom opened quietly.

In the dim light, Andrew walked in a tall silhouette, shuffling as if he was struggling with indecision. For a moment, he stood by the bedside, listening to Ashley's soft breathing and wishing they could iron out their differences as soon as possible.

He had just taken a shower and was wearing pajamas. Upon entering the room, he went straight to bed and lay down slowly beside Ashley. After a few minutes, he snuggled up to her and put his right arm around her.

After watching her for a few minutes, he noticed her sleep was somewhat restless.

"What can I do with you?'

It was not that Andrew wouldn't come back or he wouldn't like to sleep with Ashley here.

It was just he was scared. He knew Ashley wanted to do everything good to Ron and probably she liked him. How could he allow the woman he loved to be so close to another man? That was unacceptable!

And both of them were stubborn and bull-headed, neither of them willing to admit there was a problem.

For a few nights, after he started the cold war with Ashley, Andrew had stayed in the office, like someone who had nowhere to call home. But when he couldn't stand it anymore, he decided to come back to the house, even though they made no effort to bridge the rift between the two of them.

They had gone back to sleeping in the same bed since. However, they just slept together without doing anything else, and tonight, he wished it could get better. But if they couldn't change a thing, then he'd make do with simply sleeping close to each other, on the same bed, despite the cold treatment..

So like a bandit, he waited until she fell asleep before he sneaked in and slept by her side. Then in the morning, he'd get up early, ahead of Ashley and waited for her in the car.

In spite of the cold war, he didn't want her to go to work by taxi.

For reasons unknown, when Ashley woke up in the morning, she always reached her hand to touch the side of bed where Andrew used to sleep.

And she thought it was her illusion that she felt the side of the bed was warm.

'It is impossible!

How come the place is warm, when I know he hasn't slept there for a while?

Is it possible that I rolled over to that side accidentally while I was asleep?'

She wondered, but got up, went to freshen up, and then had breakfast, before she went to the car and left for work.

When she got into the car, Andrew was sitting inside, with his eyes hooked to the laptop.

His pale and slim fingers were clicking away nonstop at the keyboard.

The precision and speed with which he typed was something of a genius.

It was nice to just look at him going about his work.

But...

Ashley moved her eyes away after staring for a while.

She felt lost inside. It only added to her dilemma to see how handsome he was.

She didn't notice the motion of his hands had stopped while her eyes were still transfixed. When she realized he was looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face, she looked aside to avoid eye contact. The air inside the car was still and tense. No one could breathe freely.

It was as if the air had frozen solid.

As usual, the car stopped beside a big tree in a secluded place a dozen meters away from the office building.

The sound of the car stopping brought her back to attention. She turned her head and her eyes happened to meet Johnny's when he turned back to see her. "Thank you, Johnny," she said with a mild smile. Without wasting time, she got out of the car.

As she walked away, Johnny felt a pair of cold eyes burning holes into his side.

Resting his hands on the steering wheel, he shook with terror.

Words immediately eluded him. 'What the hell have I done wrong again?

Miss Mu just said a few cursory words of appreciation for my work.

One sentence only!

How could Mr. Lu be so petty and jaundiced because of that?!'

But Andrew wasn't even bothering to know what Johnny was thinking about.

Obsessed with Ashley, he just watched her walk off, both his hands clenching together tightly. Today, his eyes weren't cold and expressionless as in the past couple of days. It was like a storm was brewing in his world, and a downpour and thunderbolt would come in any second.

'Now she doesn't even bother to give me a glance?'

The thought put so much weight on his heart that he felt his chest hurt.

Finding Johnny was still in a daze and not in a hurry to continue driving. "Hey, drive on!" he commanded. 'What the hell are you staring at? Is there anything so interesting to watch?'

Left confused, Johnny did not know what on earth had happened between the CEO and Miss Mu. The mood they were in was inexplicable and a chill ran down his spine because of Andrew's snide words.

He almost had a heart attack.

Through his head, a flood of conflicting thoughts played tricks on him. 'Aren't you watching Miss Mu's back?

If I drove the car away immediately, probably you would get mad and yell at me too.

Anyway, whatever I do, I have to be blamed.'

He felt pathetic and sorry for himself.

The misfortune of having a cruel CEO like Andrew made him wish luck would smile on him some day and help him land a better job.

These differences between Andrew and Ashley was slowly beginning to take a toll on Johnny.

The previous week, when the couple was getting along well, they showed so much affection to each other, and often got cozy, right in front of Johnny. At one point, their constant public displays of affection had tempted Johnny into replaceing a girlfriend too. But now when he saw the cold war between the CEO and Miss Mu, his desire for love faded away.

If falling in love was going to take up much of his time, only to end up with unnecessary squabbles like this, Johnny didn't see the need to rush into dating.

'Probably I may stay single for a few more years, ' he thought to himself.

The only problem with his decision was that maybe, some people would judge him as a playboy.

What else would explain a man at his age who couldn't even act responsibility by committing himself to one girl?

It would take a good deal of changes for such a person to have a stable girlfriend.

But Johnny was no playboy. Just a good guy, discouraged about love by the stormy relationship of his CEO and the lady.

Since Jeremy found his sister, he received calls from his family almost every day.

Jeremy felt helpless. He just reunited with his sister. He couldn't scare her away.

The next time he received the call from Belinda, he had already guessed what she was going to say before she opened her mouth.

"Jeremy, when will you bring Camelia to meet us? How is she doing? Is she okay? Does she know about us?"0000000